Dave and I went out to sit in the garden yesterday after work, and we noticed a few new flowers. Our snake's head fritillary has come up once again, with its reptilian patterns.
And this little flower, which I have been erroneously calling a snowdrop, is a first for our garden. It's a Leucojum, or snowflake. I bought it a couple of years ago at Waitrose and planted it near our snowdrops, and although it came up last year it didn't bloom. This is the first time we've seen a new flower. Don't you love those little green tips on the petals? The world's best engineers and product designers could not have come up with a prettier blossom.
I'm reading an interesting memoir called "Love, Africa" by Jeff Gettleman. He's a foreign correspondent for The New York Times, and the book is basically about his lifelong infatuation with Africa and its charms. The funny thing is, I've met Gettleman -- not when we both worked at the Times, but at a party once in Florida. He was a young reporter at the St. Petersburg Times -- based in Brooksville, of all places, which is north of where I grew up in Pasco County -- and I was working at the Herald-Tribune in Sarasota. I went to a party in Tampa with some college friends who worked at the St. Pete paper and I remember chatting with Gettleman about our common interest and experiences in Africa.
I admire his youthful focus on getting back to Africa and working there. He made that his goal and St. Petersburg was a stepping stone in that direction. I have never been much of a goal-setter, myself -- I tend to drift along until an appealing opportunity presents itself, but I never know where I'm going to be in five years, much less 20. I've done pretty well with that methodology, but I am impressed with people who set long-term goals and make them happen. Somehow that is not a talent I ever developed!
Stunning and unusual (to me) flowers! I could never have a 5-year plan. I do sometimes wonder what it would be like, but it’s not in my nature. Thankfully, SG is the same. We didn’t think about retirement (maybe to Palm Springs or San Diego) until 2 years before we were going to retire. I was 55. 8 months later, we retired and moved to Spain.
ReplyDeleteSo how long ago was that? I'm 55 now but I can't imagine retiring, although there are certainly days when I'm tempted. LOL
Delete11 years ago. We wish we had done it 11 years earlier. We had more money then, besides which it would have saved us both a lot of professional stress and aggravation.
DeleteThat idea of setting long term goals for oneself seems to be a feature of the modern world and most prevalent amongst privileged classes. People who are born into village poverty in Malawi or reside in tough council estates on the edges of English cities or struggle to live in the hills of Central America are more focused upon getting through the next week and simply surviving.
ReplyDeleteIt may be a product of living in more stable circumstances, where making plans is not a fruitless exercise. But when I lived in Morocco I knew a lot of people who had long-term goals -- often to get a job in Europe! And certainly many poorer people in Latin America hope to immigrate to the USA or Canada. That's goal-setting, isn't it?
DeleteI don't know the snowflake at all. It looks delicate.
ReplyDeleteAfrica is a fascinating county and rather difficult for westerners to understand, even from what white people express who have lived their lives there. At times it feels like a functioning western country and then you a knocked down by a surprise.
Africa IS a fascinating continent and I loved the uncertainty of every day there. Those surprises made life interesting. Then again, I was lucky (or prudent) enough to not have any really unpleasant ones.
DeleteA botanical forray in your own backyard! Yours is the second recommendation if have seen for Africa.
ReplyDeleteIt's an amazing place to travel!
DeleteThat's a lovely flower, thanks for bringing it to us.
ReplyDeleteAfrica is an entire continent containing many countries and cultures. I think westerners probably choose one country to fall in love with!
I used to think I should have long term plans for life until life kept forcing choices on me. Then I had to adapt to the next necessity, but there were still choices within that.
There's certainly a lot of cultural variation. I've traveled in Western and Southern Africa and they are quite different, but I sort of fell in love with them both.
DeleteFritillary is one of my favorite flowers. I've never been much of a planner. "When you want to make god laugh, tell him your plans" :)
ReplyDeleteHa! So true! I guess that's why I admire people who ARE planners. They seem so focused.
DeleteThat snake's head -- wow. I've never seen a bloom with a pattern like that. I'll have to see if I can find one of those here. Have a wonderful weekend!
ReplyDeleteI think it's also called a checkerboard lily, or something like that.
DeleteSnakes head fritillary? Never heard of it, never seen it. How incredibly odd and beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI've never been a goal setter either, especially for long-term goals. Just...get up every day and proceed from there.
I never saw them in Florida either. I think they need a milder climate.
DeleteLove those blooming flowers there. That snowflake is such a beauty. Those green tips are so cool.
ReplyDeleteI never sent goals for myself. Oh wait, now that I think of it I do have one goal, and that's to live at least until I'm 70 years old. I've got 48 days to go!
That seems a relatively reasonable goal! LOL
DeleteWhat a batch of fascinating blooms! I've never heard of the snakes head bloom and that snowflake bloom is a masterpiece.
ReplyDeleteThe snake's heads seem so delicate but they're actually quite hardy. I used to see them on Hampstead Heath blooming every year.
DeleteI rarely set goals, especially when it comes to seeing other parts of the world. But I do have a lengthy list of things I would like to see if I happen to be in the area.
ReplyDeleteIt's always good to scope out the local options!
DeleteBeautiful snake's head fritillary!!
ReplyDeleteAren't they great? Often they have multiple flowers but it looks like we're only getting one.
DeleteLove the fritillary. I've never been one for long term goals either, or any goals really besides getting through the day, week, month. I found that making plans past a few days was never a good idea because invariably they would have to be changed.
ReplyDeleteWell, I guess it depends on the plans. Sometimes they become the priority and other things have to shift around them. You got yourself to Portugal and Scotland and that took planning, right?
DeleteLovely flowers. My mom's Christmas cactus is also blooming, and also just on the window side. They must require very specific conditions to put out blooms in one place and none at all just four inches away!
ReplyDeleteSo strange! Does it do that every year? Because ours definitely have not bloomed at this time in prior years.
DeleteI do not recall it having done so. Before Mom's dementia, she would put the plant in a cool, dark-ish room for a couple of months before Christmas, then bring it out a couple of weeks before Christmas so it would bloom around the holiday. This plant has been in a north-facing window for several years now without a break. It still tends to bloom at Christmas and to the best of my memory not at any other time. Until now.
DeleteLovely flowers and so unusual! I have never been a goal setter either. Some days I can't believe I am over 70! Where did the time go?! At least you have your journals to remind you of what you have done and where you have been!
ReplyDeleteThat's the main reason I keep them. I'd forget everything, otherwise!
DeleteYour Snowflake flower is beautiful. My cactus are blooming too. The window side blooms because that's the side that gets all the sunshine. (I think) You have a super day, hugs, Edna B.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it makes sense the sun would prompt the flowers, I guess!
DeleteYour flower pictures are always so beautiful! I think the Christmas cacti are all turning into Easter cacti and that's why they are currently blooming! My neighbor across the hallway has a Christmas cactus and it is full of blooms right now, too! Remember, Easter is right around the corner!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I was thinking about the difference between Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter cactuses -- maybe there really isn't much difference?
DeleteI love those flowers! I think I'm afraid to set goals because then I'll be (inevitably) disappointed. Apparently I don't think I'll actually achieve my goals.
ReplyDeleteAfter I came home from Zambia I used to say (& still believe) that every American could benefit from living in Africa for a year.
I think you're right. So many Americans never get beyond their own back yards.
DeleteThose are unusual and beautiful flowers! I love blooms that are different. My older daughter has a PhD in geography with her area of study West Africa. (mostly Senegal although also Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Togo, Ghana and The Gambia) I loved her experiences there but am glad that she's not traveling now. My two visits to Senegal were life changing.
ReplyDeleteI traveled in Mali and Ghana myself, as well as Burkina Faso and Cote d'Ivoire. Definitely a life-changing experience for me too! What an interesting degree -- a PhD in geography. I love geography. I think I'd have enjoyed studying that.
DeleteShe does cultural/human geography which is close to anthropology. (her M.A. is in Anthropology actually)
DeleteThose green tips on the snowflake are very pretty. I love your garden photos. We have some mystery bulbs coming up under the pine trees. I'm pretty sure they're tulips, I'm hoping they can bloom before the deer eat them.
ReplyDeleteThat's the fun of moving into a new place -- you get surprises planted by previous owners!
DeleteLove that first flower; gorgeous petals.
ReplyDeleteI, too, am not for longterm plans because you never know what life will throw at you.
And yet our culture encourages goal-setting. I remember hearing it constantly as I was growing up, how I should be setting five- and ten-year goals. I just don't have that kind of foresight.
DeleteAll the flowers are beautiful, but I'm fascinated with the pattern on that first one!
ReplyDeleteI've learned the hard way to not attempt long term plans. Ever heard that saying "man plans, God laughs"? Instead, I try to plan just far enough ahead to be sensible.
That makes sense -- that's kind of what I do, too.
DeleteLongterm plans are just an illusion, they rarely come out the way you think they will.
ReplyDeleteBut they give us a sense of control, however inaccurate and fleeting!
DeleteI call those green dot flowers Snowdrops too. I've never heard of a snake's head fritillary, it's pretty.
ReplyDeleteApparently snowdrops are technically a different plant, though surely they're related.
DeleteThose flowers are astounding! I'm the same with goals and goal-setting -- never did either.
ReplyDeleteI admire people who can visualize that far ahead, but it's not me!
Delete